New foster care rules to increase child safety take effect Sept. 1

Texas Department of Family and Protective Services Commissioner, Judge John Specia, leads a Provider Safety Forum at St. PJ’s Children’s Home in San Antonio on Dec. 6, 2013. (Chronicle file photo)

New rules take effect on Labor Day for Texas Child Protective Services requiring tougher screening of foster parents and other caregivers to improve safety for youngsters in these homes two years after an alarming increase in foster-child abuse and neglect deaths.

The updated minimum standards apply to the state’s 220 child placing agencies – known as CPAs – which are licensed by the state to recruit, screen, train and supervise foster parents.

Last year, roughly 30,000 Texas children spent at least one day in foster care or substitute care (for youth who have aged out of state responsibility but remain under supervision).

According to the agency, this is the first substantive revision of CPA rules since 2007.

Sept. 1 is the start of the state’s fiscal year 2015.

In fiscal year 2014, which ended Sunday, there were three foster children statewide who died from abuse and neglect, according to Child Protective Services spokeswoman Gwen Carter.

In fiscal year 2013, a record 10 Texas children in foster or “kinship” care died from abuse and neglect in those homes compared to two the prior year.

In addition to interviews and criminal background checks of all adult family members, safety assessments of homes and more unannounced visits, the updated regulations require new foster homes to have:

An additional interview of a relative not living in the home.

Two additional interviews of neighbors, clergy, school employees or other community members.

Interviews of all adult children of foster parents, regardless of their residence, which deletes an earlier exception for adult children who could not be contacted.

An assessment of foster parents’ previous and current personal relationships, including common-law marriages and others who have shared a domestic life, and a review of household finances.

Review of all law enforcement agency service calls to the foster home in the past two years, in addition to the current requirement for domestic violence calls in the previous year.

Verification of identity and background checks for any person designated as an emergency caregiver.

According to the agency, the new rules will help CPAs “more closely monitor existing foster homes for major changes in the household, including job losses, marriages, divorces or the addition of any household members or frequent visitors.”

Additional new rules also help court appointed special advocates, volunteers known as CASAs, to have more access to information in case files and to add their findings and reports to childrens’ case files.

The three deaths last fiscal year include the drownings of Riley Smith, 4, and his sister, 6-year-old Jenetta Smith, over the July 4 weekend in Lake Georgetown. Two children from another foster home also were present that evening. Officials have closed both Central Texas foster homes where the two sets of youngsters were residing and have banned the parents from participating in the foster-care program following an investigation that concluded that their neglect led to the water deaths.

Last October, 11-month-old Orien Hamilton died in the Cedar Park home of a step-aunt, who was her foster mother, while in the care of a man with a violent history who was accused of crushing the baby’s head between his knee and the floor.

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Welcome to the Chronicle's Houston Advocate blog, written by reporter Cindy George. The Advocate is the newspaper's consumer affairs and government watchdog column, with a mission to expose unfairness and help set things right for our readers.
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